Author: Brad Beckett

What do more than 1 million Craigslist rental listings tell us about the housing market?  That’s the question of a recent Washington Post article about the online classified site that reportedly “has become the single largest information exchange about the rental housing market in the United States.”  Citing research from University of California at Berkeley that looked at over 1.5 millions listings, they show how Craigslist is becoming a virtual market barometer – covering both the high & the low ends of the market in all corners of the country. “Craigslist has the potential to detect patterns other data sets can’t, such…

Corelogic released their Home Price Index and HPI Forecast for July 2016 showing that home prices are up 6%, year over year (which includes distressed sales) as well as increasing 1.1% month over month.  In addition,  CoreLogic’s HPI Forecast predicts that home prices will increase by 5.4% on a year-over-year basis from July 2016 to July 2017, and on a month-over-month basis by 0.4%. Click here to download the full report on CoreLogic.com

Student housing with 50-inch flat-screen televisions, hardwood floors, stainless steel appliances, en suite bathrooms and an in-unit washer/dryers?  Yes indeed, student housing has come a long way over the past few years and luxury amenities are no exception.  A recent article on Yahoo Finance discusses recent upgrades in student housing and how these are becoming standard fare at large public universities across the country.  In fact, according to Axiometrics, 47k new beds were coming online in privately owned student housing this Fall. “Privately owned student housing is quickly becoming an integral sector in real estate, and performance metrics demonstrate its…

Well it’s finally here…the ceremonial end of Summer.  Monday is Labor day so here’s a quick infographic with some fun facts and a little history about Labor Day courtesy of Office Depot / Office Max.  Happy Friday…

According to RealtyTrac’s Q2 2016 U.S. Residential Property Loan Origination Report, Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) originations wee up 5% from one year ago – marking the 17th consecutive quarter with an annual increase.  In addition, they report that nearly 1.9 million (1,868,187) loans were originated on U.S. residential properties (1 to 4 units) in the second quarter of 2016, up 26% from the a two-year low in the previous quarter quarter but down 4% from a year ago.  RealtyTrac’s loan origination report is derived from publicly recorded mortgages and deeds of trust collected by ATTOM Data Solutions in…

Even though Summer is almost over it’s still worth taking a look at the 10 Best Cities for Boaters.  Recently, Redfin worked with Discover Boating to determine which major metropolitan areas have the most waterfront property for sale, the longest boating seasons and the largest boating communities.  Redfin data scientists evaluated 35 major metropolitan areas for this report.  To find the percentage of waterfront property in each region, they looked at home sales from July 2011 through June 2015, and compared the number of waterfront listings with the number of listings not on the water. They also pulled sales information…

Digging deeper in to May’s sales numbers, Corelogic finds that distressed sales (including  REO & short sales) accounted for 8.4% of total home sales nationally in May 2016, down 2.1 percentage points from May 2015 and down 1 percentage point from April 2016.  Breaking that down further,  REO sales accounted for 5.4% and short sales accounted for 3% of total sales.  The REO sales share was the lowest for the month of May since 2007.  The short sales share fell below 4% in mid-2014 and has remained in the 3-4 percent range since then. Key takeaways: Of total sales in…

In late August, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced their new FY 2017 Fair Market Rates (FMR’s) which are used to determine payment standards for many housing assistance programs, including Housing Choice Vouchers (HCV) and Project-Based Section 8 programs.  HUD’s legal notice indicates that the proposed FMRs will take effect on October 1, 2016 unless interested parties request reevaluation of their FMRs by September 26, 2016. Click here to zero-in on a given location within the list. Click here to read the official announcement in the Federal Register.

Servicing-industry news site DSNews is reporting that the housing advocacy group whose lawsuit last year sparked a controversial decision by the U.S. Supreme Court allowing disparate impact cases to be brought under the Fair Housing Act has now seen that lawsuit dismissed by a federal judge who ruled that the group failed to meet the Supreme Court’s standard of establishing disparate impact.  The disparate impact issue has become a heated one in housing in the last few years, especially since the Obama Administration passed a rule allowing disparate impact claims—which are allegations made based on neutral practices that may have a…

According to the latest Yardi Matrix average U.S. rents increased by $3 in August to a new high of $1220 – representing the 8th consecutive monthly record.  Rents were up 5% year-over-year (down 50 basis points from July) however there are some signs rent growth is cooling.  Yardi says that fundamentals in most of the country remain strong and although occupancy rates have declined slightly, they remain extremely high with robust apartment demand across the board. “The deceleration in rents is in line with expectations. We forecast 4.5% growth for 2016, so if anything, year-to date increases have surprised on…